An agency thrust into the national spotlight over its handling of Austin C. “Gus” Deeds’ case announced Friday changes to policies and procedures made in the wake of his death.
Deeds’ father, state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, two weeks ago filed a notice of claim, the first step in a potential lawsuit, against Rockbridge Area Community Services, but an agency official said the announcement was unrelated.
“I realize it might look as though we’re trying to respond to events that transpired this month,” said David Cox, chairman of the Rockbridge Area Community Services’ governing board. “It was just a scheduling thing.”
At a board meeting earlier in the week, Rockbridge Executive Director Dennis Cropper unveiled improvements including enhanced training, extended services in Bath County and strengthened partnerships with regional medical centers, Cox said.
“We just wanted to get it out, to let the public know that this is what we’re doing,” Cox said of the release. “The events of November did reveal to the entire system that we all had to make some changes.”
After answering media questions in the wake of Gus Deeds’ death, the agency largely remained silent as state probes into the case unfolded.
Deeds, 24, walked out of Bath Community Hospital on Nov. 19, 13 hours before repeatedly stabbing his father and fatally shooting himself with a rifle at the family’s Millboro home. An emergency custody order for Deeds expired before the Rockbridge clinician tasked with evaluating him could secure further court-ordered care.
The clinician told investigators he had contacted 10 facilities to find Deeds a psychiatric bed, but only seven of those calls could be documented, according to a state inspector general’s report released in March.
Communication breakdowns resulting in costly delays, a lack of protocols, barriers to finding care and missteps by the clinician all factored into a tragic outcome, the report said.
Cox declined to comment Friday whether the clinician is still a Rockbridge employee.
“We as a board have tremendous confidence in our executive director, our leadership team and the agency,” he said. “We have great confidence in their abilities not only to provide high-level services but to keep improving.”
A phone call to Cropper, who was listed as a press contact on the release, went to a voicemail recording saying he would be back in the office June 3.
Sen. Deeds declined to comment on the changes outlined in the three-page statement. A day earlier at a town hall in Charlottesville, he pledged to “remake the system” of public mental health care in Virginia.
“As Virginians, we should not be satisfied to have excellence in some parts of the state and total inadequacy in other parts,” Deeds said Thursday.
Rockbridge credited legislation Deeds championed this year for driving some improvements the agency has undertaken since November.
Along with funding for a four-year legislative study of the mental health system, the law includes a requirement for law enforcement to notify the community services board when an emergency custody order has been served. The omnibus legislation also extended emergency custody orders from six to eight hours and temporary detention orders from 48 to 72 hours. An online registry of available psychiatric beds across the state was launched in March.
Rockbridge partnered with Bath Community and Carilion Stonewall Jackson hospitals to secure access to computers so that crisis workers can make use of the registry, Cox said.
“The online registry won’t do you a bit of good if you can’t get online,” he said. “We and every CSB are working to try and make things better.”
Other moves at Rockbridge include shifting administrative duties from clinical to support staff and contracting a vendor to send reminders to patients about appointments, Cox said. Rockbridge also has diverted more resources to Bath County, increasing outpatient hours and purchasing equipment that will allow Bath residents to have remote psychiatric sessions, the release states.
“We wish we could do more, but of course, like everyone else, we are limited by funding,” Cox said.